If you are the MVP of the elementary school “club soccer” team, you are lucky – the crab walking movement is back. Throw away these crab walking skills and see how this old-fashioned exercise can give you great full body workouts.
Club Walk: Step-by-step instructions
- Sit on the ground and bend your knees, and the soles of your feet press against the ground. Your feet should be almost hip-width.
- Reach both hands behind your hips, press your palms against the ground with your fingers facing forward or sides.
- Use the glute and nucleus muscles to lift your hips and create a “table top” position with the torso and thighs. Only your palms and soles of your feet should be touching the floor.
- Keep your hips up and move forward with your right and left hand, followed by your left foot and right hand. “The key to properly performing a crab walk is to use a ‘cross crawl’ movement pattern,” says Trevor Thieme of CSCS.
- Continue to advance with the opposite hand and foot with the specified hand and foot before reversed movement and returning to the starting position.
Benefits of crab walk exercises
In addition to reminiscing fond memories of the playground, crab walk exercises offer many fitness-related benefits.
1. Functions all over the body
“A crab walk moves your arms, shoulders, cores, glut, hamstrings and quads,” Thiem says. This movement involves almost every muscle from shoulder to toe. Therefore, you don’t need to do much exercise to move your whole body.
In addition, movements of the whole body create greater oxygen demand than separation movements. This means burning more calories per minute. Such efficiency is important to anyone who is under pressure over time (i.e., we are all).
2. It’s the upper body burner
If your goal is to increase the strength of your biceps and triceps, crab walking exercise is a smart addition to your workout routine. While many aerobic exercises focus on the lower body, crab walking exercises improve upper body endurance.
3. No weight required
If you are trying to build strength but don’t have easy access to weight (or more than just pumping iron), animal-inspired movements like crab walking exercises are a great option as they use weight for resistance.
Which muscles do crabs work?
Crab walking exercises are full body exercises, but they put a strain on the upper arms, upper limbs, and cores in particular. Crab walking exercises primarily function the following muscles:
- Triceps: The triceps, made up of three heads, are located behind the upper arm. The triceps are extended with the elbow and rotate the arm outward.
- Natural Abdomen: Often, the abdominal abdomen, known as a 6 pack, runs the length of the abdomen. The rectal abdomen bend the torso and work with other core muscles to generate intraperitoneal pressure.
- glute: Your butt muscles – Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Medius, and Gluteus Minimus – stabilize the pelvis, stretch your hips, rotate your legs, and lift your legs to the sides.
- Quadriceps: The quads, also known as the “quad,” is located at the top of the top of the leg. The four muscles of the femoral rectum, the vastus lateralis, the vastus medialis, and the vastus intermedius work together to stretch the knees.
- Hamstrings: There are hamstrings under the glut at the top of the back of the legs. In addition to bending the knees, the hamstring muscles stretch your hips and rotate your legs.
- calf: A crab walk involves the Soleus muscle, which points to the toes when the knee is bent 90 degrees.
- Chest, anterior shoulders, rats: These muscles work together to stabilize the shoulders during this exercise. Final warning: Not everyone’s shoulders are happy in the crab walk position. Try the move and if you become a Cranky, switch to Crawl the Bear. It’s not the same move, but it offers many of the same benefits.
